Author's Note:
Merry Christmas Eve! Consider this as my early Christmas present to you all. At least I don't have to wrap it...
Also, renamed story! I just got like ten times more readers thanks to this. However, it will always be known as I Even Miss the Pickles in my folder for this...
Epsilon's POV
Coming upon the biggest tree in existence, I was put into the perspective of Flabébé. Being that tiny, with normal trees this large in their perspective, with every other Pokémon on Earth larger than it, must be terrifying. But it may not be, seeing as they know nothing else besides being the smallest. It's what they're used to. The rest of Team Gecko, plus the Pansear, Pansage, and Panpour, had already made their way ahead to the tree while I was contemplating this, so I had to stop my musing and follow.
Up close, the tree was even more massive than I had thought; even though it was still a good hundred feet away, I was stumbling over its knotted roots. The Pans weren't affected, they merely used them as springboards to launch themselves up in the air in a show of gymnastics. Hecate and River were also affected by the roots, the latter landing facefirst in the dirt after tripping over one.
This led Hecate to laugh at her misfortune, and after tripping over her own root, I could barely suppress my grin. Naturally, I then had to trip over one, and pretty soon we were all on the ground, laughing our heads off, the Pans all far ahead of us.
"What are you waiting for? Come on! Everyone can't wait to meet you!" exclaimed the Panpour, while doing a frontflip over a root to get back to us. I glared at him and got back to my feet, continuing over the roots. And who was everyone else? Were there more of them? I hadn't really paid attention to their explanation back in Poison Meadow, as I called it for the incident. I named a lot of the places in the forest that we'd been to.
There was First Night Tree, Learned Taunt Meadow, One Week Tree, and several others all named for what significant thing happened there. I still had to name this tree, it would probably be named something like Pan Tree. I didn't know what it would be just yet, but I would think of something.
Team Gecko eventually made it across the roots, and came to the base of Nameless Tree (that was what I was calling it for now), where a hole that was just as tall as I was lay in the center of the trunk. The Pans went inside the doorway, and Hecate, River, and I followed the trio.
"Woah." River was right. Inside the tree was the heart of a civilization. Pansages, Panpours, and Pansear bustled about in what was evidently the main hall, carrying Berries, leaves, and various objects dropped by Trainers as they passed through the woods. Team Gecko stared; this was simply amazing.
"So, this is the main plaza, and over there is the food store," said the Pansear, pointing his mitten in the direction of a room where, beyond the doorway similar to the entrance, you could see shelves lined with Berries, "it also doubles as out medical store." I nodded; many Berries did have healing properties.
"And then over here is where the bedrooms are!" The Pansage was perched atop another doorway -they had a sort of hem around them- that had what looked like bunks inside. "We should really take you to our leader," he mused. I had no idea who his leader was, but I was okay with not seeing him/her. Sometimes, leaders were bad. Very bad. "She's just up the staircase."
The staircase was right in the center of the plaza, leading up to the second level. The Pans, Hecate, and I all began climbing the stairs. Except for River.
"Ermmm… are you guys headed up there? 'Cause if you are, I won't be able to follow," she said, and it was true; she was sitting cross-legged because the ceiling was too low for her to stand. And she was so heavy, she'd break the staircase. I was debating whether it could even hold me or not. "I'll just wait outside…" Her sentence trailed off, River starting to Krabby-walk back towards the entrance. The Panpour nodded to let her know that he was okay with it, and she left the plaza.
The remaining members of Team Gecko followed the Pans up the staircase, to the second story. A balcony, with a railing of twigs, looked over the central plaza. The Pans led us around the circular balcony, where, on the opposite side of the staircase, was a doorway, larger than the others. I couldn't see the inside of it, due to strings of colorful beads hanging over it.
"Come on in, our leader will be glad to meet you," said the Pansage, while pulling back the bead curtain. The perfume that wafted out of the open doorway started to make me cough; it was about thirty seconds before I could take a deep breath without choking again. Even then, I took shallow breaths as I entered this… leader's… chamber.
I first noticed the pillows. Fluffy, soft pillows in various shades of pink, red, and violet covered the entire floor of the room. In the center, meditating in front of a pool of deep blue water was a meditating Simipour, who opened her eyes when she head us enter.
"Hello! What have we here?" she boomed, her deep voice oddly echoing across the room. "Talo, who did you bring here?"
"Erm… these are… actually, I don't know your names…" the Pansage, whose name was apparently Talo, trailed off, staring at his green feet. The Simipour stared at him disapprovingly, and made him shrink back even more under her stern gaze.
"I'm Hecate, and the Absol here is Epsilon," said Hecate, stepping up and meeting the water type's eye bravely. "Trainer's outside; the tree was too small for her."
"Ah, I see!" laughed the Simipour. "My name is Kamara. I am the spiritual leader here at the Tribe. Also the regular leader. Welcome to the Tree," she said, eagerly holding out her paw to shake. Hecate and I glanced at each other to see who would shake first. Eventually, I gave in to her puppy-Growlithe eyes; I thought I'd be better at that than her. I semi-reluctantly stretched out a forepaw, and Kamara gripped it in her own. She shook vigorously, and I recalled my paw, staring at her a little weirdly for her surprising eagerness. "So, what brings you here?"
"Well," I began, and launched into the story of how we ended up in the 'Tree', starting from when we went off the path in the forest to get the Berries, going over every major event that happened, concluding at where we walked in here. "and we want to know how to get out of here," I concluded, looking in Kamara's eyes, which had never lost interest during the course of my tale.
"Sorry guys, can't help you there. I've never been out of the forest myself," said Kamara, "but I think the local spirit, Hoopa, can help out here." Hoopa? If he was a local spirit of the forest, he may not know the way out of here either. But I kept my doubts in my mind; saying them aloud would make them seem even worse. "I just need to get a little ritual started." Spirits, rituals, this was getting better and better. I think we would have stood a better chance of making it out of the forest if we'd just ignored the Pans and continued wandering around.
Nonetheless, Kamara began rummaging around in what appeared to be secret compartments under the pillows, pulling out various trinkets. "No, no, I need the Oran-scented candles… no, not Iapapa! Oran! Ah, there it is!" She held a tall, thin, royal blue candle triumphantly in the air. "And now I need to get the Willow tree-branch wand…" eventually, a bundle of long, thin, springy branches joined the candles in a small pile in front of the pool. Several other organic voodoo materials later, the Simipour gave out a call: "Spritzee!" I couldn't remember which Pokémon that was until I saw them.
They were these pink… things that came… were they dancing? Dancing out of the shadows of the room. They had long, beaklike noses, and had long, shaggy hot pink fur that went into a sort of wisp at the tops of their heads. With them came a fragrance that was… captivating. I didn't know why, but it was. I felt myself inhale it deeply, then sigh happily.
"What's her deal?" Even that somewhat cold remark from Hecate couldn't get my spirits down. Kamara stared at me for a minute, then snapped her paws. How she did that, I had no idea.
"Your buddy Absol is a Dark Type. Fairy moves, and Fairy Pokémon, are strong against them." The last fact snapped me out of my trance. Me, the Doom Death Dog, as River called me sometimes, was weaker than these floating balls of puff! I growled, to show them I wasn't intimidated by them and their… fluffy, pink, smelly-ness. The Spritzee just giggled and took their places in a three-quarters circle around the pool. Hecate and I were opposite the gap that the Spritzee had made, which was intended for Kamara, who was busy placing her voodoo props in their places around the pool.
After the Oran candles were in place, completing an intricate star around the water, Kamara turned to Hecate. "I would normally have to light these all by hand, since the Pansear here have only learned Incinerate, and I need the things here to be intact and not in a burning crisp. Thank you, Kodo," she said to the blushing Pansear. That sounded like something River would say. I decide to like Kamara a little bit more. "And I presume that you know a good Fire move or two?"
"Yeah, Ember," muttered Hecate sheepishly, staring down at her paws. Then she straightened, chanting to herself "you can do it, me. You can do it," over and over.
Eventually, she stopped the pep talk and started shooting fireballs at the candles. I have to admit, her accuracy was impressive. Every Ember she shot hit its target. After five or so Tauros-eyes, Hecate started to relax, and hit the rest of the candle wicks with ease. About a minute later, the pool of water in front of us was eerily lit by the candles placed intricately around it. Kamara gave Hecate a look of approval, and she brightened.
Kamara took out one of her willow-branch wands and stuck it in one of the Berry-candle's flame. It started smoking, and she waved it over the fire. She began chanting in a language that I didn't know, and neither did any of the other Pokémon here, by the looks on their faces.
"Singaba hambayo thina,
Kuhlom hla ba,
Khe pha si ne kah ya,
El zuwi ni"
She copied the same chant over and over, the smoke from her branch wand, combined with the flickering light, made the room seem ethereal. The Spritzee began doing a dance, which involved a lot of twirling, and whenever they did so, a pinkish perfume wafted out from under them.
The smoke, the Spritzee's perfume, and the perfume that was in here before made me start choking a little. It was just a grumble in my throat, however; I didn't want to ruin the voodoo magic spell or whatever it was. I toughed it out and stared intently at the water along with Hecate.
Kamara did her chant thing one more time, thrusting her wand, which flared bright orange, into the pool on the last "ni". The water began glowing an unnatural sky blue, and I shied away from it, Hecate leaning even farther in. What can I say? I don't like the supernatural.
The water began to glow even brighter, and started to rise, which was getting to my out-of-this-world limit. And my out-of-this-world limit is very high. Trust me. So, the already eerie glowing water was starting to make a pillar in the center of the pool, steam billowing off of it, and I was seriously thinking that the Spritzee's perfume contained some sort of alcohol in it.
"I see something!" Hecate was staring into the pillar of what was mostly steam now, and she could see something. What it was, I had no idea. Kamara, who I presume was also peering into the mist, exclaimed "I see it, too!" Could they see Hoopa, whoever he was? I tried looking into the steam, but I saw nothing. Why couldn't I see this spirit of the forest? Was it something I did? Did he not approve of me?
"Hoopa!" I guess he didn't.
Author's Note:
Yep, I just used an unconfirmed Pokémon. Go ahead, unfollow, unlike, unsubscribe, unread this story, unlive for all I care. I won't really miss the people who do. But to you guys who will stick with me through confirmed, unconfirmed, and those really sucky filler chapters that go nowhere plot-wise, you guys are the true… IDK what to call you guys. Suggestions in the comments!
To you people who are wondering where the chant came from, it's a South African song that translates into something like this:
On Earth an army is marching,
We're going home.
Our hearts are filled with song,
We sing out strong.
At least, that's the English verse of the song. Totally matches the situation. Oh, and RIP my first (ever) Hall o' Fame team to do my Nuzlocke (not so much of one anymore) run. Bye Dione (Absol), Trent (Blastoise), Fleur (Roserade), Mal (Gallade), Zoe (Gardevoir), and Jackie (Delphox). I'm going to miss you all. *sniff* ONTO THE NUZLOCKE (I have renamed it One-way Box Run (You can't take Pokemon out of the Box once they're in there))! P.s. I totally made Mewtwo faint… I ran out of Pokéballs. And gave up. Screw him. (I just lost like half of you guys who toughed it out through Hoopa.)